33 Weeks!

After 3 weeks of hospitalization, the baby and I made it to 33 weeks together!  We are going strong and are hoping to make it to 34 weeks!

The baby has been wiggling a lot last night, so I was hoping that maybe he would turn around from breech (butt down) to vertex (head down).  I woke up in the middle of the night, and saw the whole circumference of his head poking at the top of my belly, right above the belly button!  Unless he has buns of steel, he’s definitely still breech.

Despite feeling the baby move and seeing imprints of various body parts through my belly, I still have a difficult time believing that there is a ~4-lb baby inside me who is going to have to face the world on his own in about a week.  I know he has a beautiful spine, brain, and lungs based on the ultrasound, but I still can’t even imagine what he really looks like.  Last night I had a little meltdown about the prospect of having this little human surgically extracted from me before his due date.  Luckily, Razvan was here to comfort me and calm me down.  The prospect of C-section no longer scares me as much as it did 3 weeks ago, my main source of fear now is well-being of my baby.  I really hope the little guy makes it out healthy.

For some reason, every time I try to work on my thesis, my uterus decides to practice contracting.  This is a normal occurrence this late in pregnancy, and usually these types of contractions are painless, irregular, and are not supposed to lead to the dilation of the cervix.  Once I lie down and relax the contractions go away.  Perhaps it’s a sign that I should take it easy.  I’m kind of stubborn though, and would like to get a revised draft of my thesis to my advisor before heading off to the operating room.  So I periodically keep trying to get the thesis in order.  The uterus is the boss, though.  She has total control over my body right now, and she is the one who ultimately decides whether or not that thesis draft will make it in.


Here are some pictures we took in the garden outside the NICU today:

33 weeks!  Front view.

33 weeks! Side view.